Forum:Userboxes
I'm back. Thanks to college, I've had less time to devote to the internet in general, and I'm still not completely back on track, but I'd like to get some work done. I've started with the userboxes. I'm not sure, but did we agree to delete the political userboxes? -- 21:20, 18 September 2007 (UTC) ---- I'm thinking it's time to do away with those silly userboxes which have nothing to do with the content of this wiki--sports, Zodiac, and all that--or are just blatantly ridiculous. They do nothing really but make things appear more chaotic. We can keep certain ones which may be useful, as in, imparting useful information, and those synonymous with our cause--i.e., the Firefox box indicates browser usage; mirror universe, small ships etc. can serve to coordinate our projects in those areas; and others which are sci-fi oriented (Stargate, Dr. Who and so on) can help the Wikia sci-fi community in general. Thoughts? If anyone disagrees, please cite some concrete reasons. 13:23, 17 October 2007 (UTC) :I think we should at least leave the sports and movie ones. Those are indicators of personality and they make user profiles unique. I don't want to give up my White Sox userbox. -- 17:11, 17 October 2007 (UTC) ::I remember this discussion before.... I'm all in favor of streamlining. No need for our user pages to become a "MySpaceWannaBe" page. Just my opinion. your milage may vary. -- 04:39, 18 October 2007 (UTC) :::That's what it's getting to look like. I cut mine to three, no matter how much I liked the others. It says Star Trek, not NBA or what have you. (Not directed at Kevin; just an example.) (There are sports wikis where they might allow that sort of stuff http://sports.wikia.com/index.php?title=Main_Page, http://fantasysports.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page.) I mean, c'mon... South Park? Friends? How are those in any way useful? (Rhetorically speaking. Again...just examples.) 06:45, 18 October 2007 (UTC) ::::I would really prefer if we reached a consensus on these things before you unilaterally go off and delete a bunch of the userboxes. Just because you think it doesn't mean the membership as a whole thinks it as well. Leave the movie/sports userboxes alone. The political boxes can go. This is a consensus-based community. Just because you're the bureaucrat does not give you ultimate authority. This has to be decided by the community and only by the community. Do not delete any more boxes or categories until this issue is resolved. -- 05:05, 29 October 2007 (UTC) Well sorry Kevin, but this is not "Kevin's wiki" or the "sports wiki" and they really have nothing to do with the project. You must have known that when you put 'em there in the first place (and I can tell you think you should always get your way). If the sports ones, then why not the political ones? Or any other? I think Sneg put it best: This isn't "MySpace". Sneg and I seem to be in agreement on the matter, and no one else has spoken about it (while they've had time to do so), so that seems to represent consensus at this point: 2 against 1. Userboxes should be about the Star Trek Expanded Universe project. Branching into other areas of sci-fi is probably acceptable, because that's sort of borderline to the whole thing (with a lot of SF genre-crossing in fanfic), but what does a Florida football team (for example) have to do with it? If we allow some off the mark, then technically we should allow all off the mark. But the problem with that is the impression it sends to other would-be contributors here... that Star Trek fandom isn't really what we're about. Regardless, if you want to have your own personal userboxes on your page, that's fine. They can be coded into the page without taking up other pages. But we don't need categories for them, and they should stay off the STEU:Userbox page. 06:03, 29 October 2007 (UTC) :I can understand where Kevin is coming from. It would have probably been best if you left a message here saying that you were going to start removing userboxes by the end of the week, just in case there were any last minute comments. Plus given that this affects most users maybe a general vote should be held, with votes for deleting or keeping various categories of userboxes (sports, movies, etc) to get a more balanced community response. - 11:39, 29 October 2007 (UTC) :I fail to see how a few userboxes would give an impression of being "off the mark." They're a small part of people's userpages and you don't see them unless you actually look at the userpages. Considering the name and style of this wiki, I hardly believe that one small userbox is going to make someone think, "Oh, even though the name says 'Star Trek Expanded Universe Database,' it's plainly obvious to me, based on this one userbox on this one user's page, that this wiki is actually all about sports. Silly me." -- 16:14, 29 October 2007 (UTC) ::I wasn't clear enough (didn't really explain actually) what I meant about sending impressions. I should have said, I was concerned about controversy it could stir up, as in, how people (contributors, existing or potential) might react to certain personal userboxes. Any personal expression, even if one person feels it's innocuous, could draw offense. Yes, even sports (as a die-hard sports fan could attest). And if we allow some, then by rights we should allow all--and that might reach the point where, conceivably, it turns others off, if it hasn't already. Who can say who should or should not have the right to complete freedom of personal expression? If one person has to be curtailed, then all should -- or none. I'm all for making people aware, and I wouldn't mind advertising my own political/religious/cultural beliefs, but I guarantee it would piss people off, even though it in no way reflects my wiki skills or commitment. So it's no one else's business. That isn't why I'm here and it has nothing to do with this wiki. It just seems to me best to avoid it altogether, and stick to the subject matter at hand. 17:57, 29 October 2007 (UTC) :::Then we should just get rid of the ones that people could see as offensive. I've refrained from restoring the political ones and I'll delete the Yankee hater one if necessary. -- 19:13, 29 October 2007 (UTC)